Festinger's (1957) cognitive dissonance theory proposed that cognitions can be relevant or irrelevant, and—if relevant—consonant or dissonant. As stated by (Fiske, 2014) people avoid dissonance in several ways, most easily by self-generated attitude change, that is, changing the dissonant cognitions. For slave owners to accept the idea of treating humans as property they enlisted the use of cognitive dissonance as Festinger defined as (Fiske,